Milky Way: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:17, 21 September 2006

Revision as of 18:48, 21 September 2006

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[[Image:Milkyway_pan1.jpg|thumb|700px|center|360-degree photographic panorama of the entire galaxy.]]

[[Image:Milky_way_bw.gif|thumb|250px|right|Artist sketch of the Milky Way viewed from Earth on a dark, clear night.]]

[[Image:MWcenterMWcenter1.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The galactic center in [[Sagittarius]].]]

[[Image:M31clip~M31clip1.jpg|thumb|250px|right|A portion of the galaxy showing our sister galaxy, M31, in the background]]

The '''Milky Way''' (a translation of the [[Latin]] ''Via Lactea'', in turn derived from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Γαλαξίας'' (Galaxias), sometimes referred to simply as "[[Galaxy#Etymology|the Galaxy]]"), is a [[barred spiral galaxy]] which forms part of the [[Local Group]]. Although the Milky Way is but [[Hubble Deep Field|one of billions of galaxies]] in the [[universe]], the Galaxy has special significance to [[human]]ity as it is the home of the [[Solar System]]. [[Democritus]] (450 BC–370 BC) was the first known person to claim that the Milky Way consists of distant stars.